Hulu Sets Documentary About Tegan and Sara Catfish Program
Hulu has picked up the documentary ‘Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara’, which launches on the streamer on October 18. Produced by Story Syndicate and Erin Lee Carr’s Carr Lot Prods., the film focuses on a long-running catfishing scheme that has affected fans of Canadian indie rock band Tegan and Sara.
The documentary follows what happened when Tegan Quin (who performs with sister Sara Quin) was hacked in 2011 and her personal files were made public. From there, her identity was stolen and used in a complex catfish scheme to defraud the band’s fans and the community that had developed around Tegan and Sara.
“Tegan and Sara have become known worldwide as one of the most influential queer indie rock bands of their generation,” according to the documentary’s synopsis. “They have worked hard to cultivate an inclusive and passionate fan base around the world. Listeners were drawn to the duo’s beautiful confessional lyrics, but there was more than just the music. Fans found within the community the only safe place to come out and be queer at a time when few bands would declare their alliance, let alone celebrate their own queer identity. But a bad actor took advantage of the community’s trust and comfort.”
Using the name “Fegan” – as in “Fake Tegan” – the thief wanted to ensnare members of that community, and those actions led to a “serious ripple effect of distrust, fear and self-doubt.” Tegan Quin eventually enlisted documentary maker and researcher Erin Lee Carr (“Britney Vs. Spears”) to find the perpetrator.
Together with the original 2011 investigation that Tegan and Sara’s team conducted to find out what was going on, the film reveals new victims and potential suspects – “and reveals sinister and unforeseen twists. Told through Tegan’s own voice, the voices of misguided fans, a wealth of visceral communications between fake Tegan and their victims, and the visual history of the band’s behind-the-scenes archive, this documentary is a thriller, a caper, a whodunnit . , and an intimate personal journey all in one. It gets to the heart of love and betrayal, fame and fandom, desire and delusion in the 21st century.”
Recently, Tegan and Sara turned their memoir “High School” into an Amazon Freevee series from filmmaker Clea DuVall. The identical twins founded Tegan and Sara in 1998 and have since released ten albums. The duo was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 and released their most recent album ‘Crybaby’ in 2022. Last year they released the graphic novel ‘Junior High’. The prolific siblings produce the Substack newsletter “The Loners Club” and oversee the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which won this year’s Juno Humanitarian Award.
Hulu’s growing lineup of documentaries and docuseries includes the recent entry “Perfect Wife: The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherri Papini,” which became Hulu’s most-watched docuseries after one week of streaming.
“Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara” is directed and produced by Erin Lee Carr and produced by Elyssa Hess, with producer Jenny Eliscu. The documentary is also executive produced by Tegan Quin and Sara Quin; as well as Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jon Bardin and Kate Barry for Story Syndicate.
